Programs & Academics

Youth Empowerment Services (Y.E.S.)

Eighth Grade Community Service Program

Eighth graders at Miller Creek are catching the volunteer spirit! Students are choosing to empower themselves and help others by volunteering in their communities: local, regional, state, national, and global.

Miller Creek is providing a community service program which will allow all eighth graders the opportunity to make a difference in their respective communities. Each student will be given the chance to select a service project. With the help of Miller Creek parent volunteers, each eighth grade homeroom teacher has received a community service binder illustrating the volunteer options available to eighth grade students.

Each student will be given the chance to select a service project. Each student will document hours on a provided log sheet and then present the sheet to the homeroom teacher who will in turn record each student's volunteer hours. Eighth grade students are being asked to complete a total of 20 hours of community service: these hours will be defined as direct service, including physically working in the community and providing direct service, such as helping to build homes for the needy, reading to the elderly, or caring for orphaned and/or mistreated animals.

Those students who choose to participate in the program and complete 20 hours of community service, will be recognized at the end-of-the-year eighth grade assembly and receive a special certificate of award.

How Parents Can Help:

Discuss responsibilities connected with community service.

Help students with initial contact(s).

Help students research service opportunities.

Remind students to confirm appointments and encourage them to keep commitments.

Remind students to fill in data logs.

Follow-up with lots of discussion and writing about experiences.

Connecting Life Skills:
Students will feel a sense of satisfaction as they meet and interact with new people and environments that are challenging and interesting. Learning and discussing themes in the classroom, such as responsibility, tolerance, cooperation, and respect are a wonderful start to character building. The true test of character is doing something unselfish. Students need to reach inside of themselves and find the capacity to help others in their communities.

Once again, community volunteer activities will be available for sixth and seventh graders at Miller Creek. We feel this is a great way to cultivate the volunteer spirit in all of our students. Opportunities for community service will be announced and coordinated through our student council or Honor Society.

VOLUNTEER POSSIBILITIES

Current School (Y.E.S.) & Community Service Opportunities

Love is the Answer-LITA~ Volunteers are needed December 17 thru 23 to help wrap donated items. For more information call 472-5482

Homeward Bound~ Needs volunteers in the kitchen at the agency's New Beginnings Center in Novato. People can sign up to prepare and deliver meals to homeless families. Please call 382-6010 for more information.

The Book Exchange~ Volunteers needed to unpack and sort through books. Call 435-5771 for more information.

Check out The Center for Non-Profit Leadership of Marin for service projects across the county for its "Holiday Gifts of Love" drive. Check out www.cvnl.org for more information.